r-s"- 
 
 Itheological seminary,; 
 
 S Princeton, N. J. c 
 
 ^ . ^ T?«^w. tl.^ 17TIRT.TSHER 
 
 BV 4565 .N6 1847 
 
 Noel, Baptist Wriothesley, 
 
 1798-1873. 
 Infant piety 
 
 Bookf 
 
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 0. 
 
INFAIT PIETY: 
 
 BOOK FOR LITTLE CHILDREN 
 
 BY 
 
 BAPTIST W. NOEL, M.A. 
 
 " ShifTer the little children to come unto me and forbid tiiem not ; for 
 
 of such is the kingdom of God."' 
 "And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed 
 
 them."— Mark x. 14, Ki. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET 
 
 AND PITTSBURG, 56 MARKET STREET. 
 
 1847. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. Some Things which Little Children ought to 
 
 know ,5 
 
 II. Lives of Pious Little Children : 
 
 1. David Brown 12 
 
 2. Louisa Woodd Mortlock . .24 
 
 3. Annie T 32 
 
 4. James Budge Jones .... 38 
 
 5. Little Nannette .... 41 
 
 6. Little Elizabeth 49 
 
 7. Phoebe Bartlett . ' . . , 62 
 
 8. Jolm Mooney Mead .... 66 
 
 9. Margaret Walton ... 78 
 10. Mary Lothrop . . , . , 87 
 
 III. Some Things which Little Children ought to do 98 
 
INFANT PIETY 
 
 SOME THINGS WHICH LITTLE CHILDREN 
 OUGHT TO KNOW. 
 
 When you get up, my dear children, after 
 a good sleep, strong and well, and put on 
 your clothes, you feel ready to jump about 
 and play. By and by you go out into the 
 garden, you smell the sweet flowers, you 
 see the blue sky, you feel the warm sun, you 
 see the lambs run about, and hear the birds 
 sing. You can run about like the lambs, 
 and sing like the birds. The lambs and the 
 birds are not more gay than you. When 
 you are tired and come in, you learn to read 
 or to sew ; and then you play again. When 
 you are hungry you have plenty to eat. 
 Kind friends take care of you, because you 
 cannot take care of yourselves : and when 
 night comes the birds go to their nests, the 
 bees go to their hives, and you go to your nice 
 1* 
 
6 SOME THINGS WHICH 
 
 little beds. Who has made you so happy ? 
 Your parents take care of you, but God made 
 both them and you. He made the flowers 
 so sweet to please you. He made the birds 
 sing, and the lambs to play. He makes the 
 sun warm you. He gives you your sleep, 
 your clothes, and your food. He makes you 
 feel so happy all the day. Why has he given 
 you so many things? Because he is good. 
 He is with you every day, in every place. 
 He knows what you think, what you speak, 
 and what you do ; and he loves to see a 
 little child happy and good. Do you love 
 him for being so good ? When you feel so 
 happy do you bless him for it? The birds 
 and the lambs cannot bless him as you can ; 
 because they have no souls, and they cannot 
 speak. It is your soul which thinks, and 
 loves, and makes you speak. God gave you 
 your soul that you may know him and love 
 him. Your soul will never die. When your 
 body dies, and is put into the grave, your soul 
 will live in heaven or in hell. When the 
 poor sheep die they die quite, because they 
 have no souls. But you will still think, and 
 feel, and love, when your body is dead. If 
 
LITTLE CHILDREN OUGHT TO KNOW. 7 
 
 you love God, you will then be with him in 
 heaven, which is a very happy place, where 
 all good children are ; and where all are who 
 loved the Lord when they were on earth : 
 but if you do not love God, you will be put 
 away from God into hell, a place of torment, 
 where all bad children are, with the devil, 
 and with all bad people. Now, my dear little 
 children, unless God has changed your hearts 
 you do not love him ; and I fear that you 
 show this by many things. Do you love to 
 think of him? Do you praise him for all 
 that you have ? Do you like to hear your 
 parents speak to you of him ? Above all, do 
 you like to do as he bids you in his w^ord ? 
 If not, then you have not loved him, though 
 he gives you every thing which you have ; 
 and what do you deserve for this ? Since 
 you do not love him, he might be angry w4th 
 you, and never bless you any more ; but take 
 away all that he has given you ; and leave 
 you without parents, without friends, without 
 food or clothes, and without any hope of 
 going to heaven. But God is so good and so 
 kind, that instead of saying you should be un- 
 happy for ever, he sent his dear Son Jesus 
 
8 SOME THINGS WHICH 
 
 Christ to make you for ever happy. You 
 deserve to suffer for your sins, but Jesus 
 Christ came to suffer instead of you. He 
 came dov^^n from heaven for you; he bore 
 much pain for you ; and at last wicked men 
 put up a cross of wood, to which they nailed 
 his hands and his feet, and left him to die. 
 He might have killed those wicked men if he 
 had pleased, and saved himself from the pain 
 of that dreadful death : but he would not 
 because he loved you, and because it was 
 needful that he should bear the punishment 
 which your sins deserved. So he died on 
 the cross that you might not suffer in hell. 
 You cannot save yourselves, but he can save 
 you. God is pleased to pardon and to bless 
 for his sake those sinners who believe in him. 
 If you do not so trust him as to give your- 
 selves up to his care, then God will punish 
 you for all your other sins, and for not trust- 
 ing in Christ. Then you will go to hell for 
 ever ; and for being so ungrateful to Christ, 
 you will suffer more there than if he had 
 never come to save you. Once there, you 
 will never come out again, but you will be 
 lost for ever. Because you are so wicked as 
 
LITTLE CHILDREN OUGHT TO KNOW. b 
 
 to refuse to come to Christ to save you, God 
 can never have mercy upon you any more. 
 You must Uve for ever with the devil and 
 with his angels in hell lire. But if you own 
 that you deserve the wrath of God ; if you 
 trust in Jesus Christ to save you ; and if you 
 put yourself under his care, and will do 
 what he bids you, then he will save you ; 
 and God will bless you for his sake. Although 
 your hearts are so wicked, that you have not 
 loved God for all his goodness, yet instead of 
 sending you to hell, he is willing to make you 
 as happy as the angels are in heaven. Ask, 
 therefore, God to change your hearts, that 
 you may feel your guilt, fear his wrath, trust 
 in Jesus, and give yourselves up to him from 
 this time. Many little children have done so. 
 God, by his Spirit, made them sorry for their 
 sins, and led them to believe in Christ ; and 
 when they did so, then they loved Christ for 
 being so good to them ; then they read the 
 Bible and prayed often in secret ; they fear- 
 ed to sin and they strove against it; they 
 loved good children, and did not like to be 
 with bad ones ; they obeyed their parents : 
 they tried to do every thing that was right : 
 
10 WHAT CHILDREN OUGHT TO KNOW. 
 
 they were patient when they were sick, and 
 they did not fear to die. Faith in Christ 
 would make you as pious as they were. You 
 must be so, dear children, to go to heaven 
 when you die, or to be happy while you live. 
 And now, while you read about some of these 
 children in this little book, pray to God, 
 through Jesus Christ, to make you as pious 
 and as happy as they were. 
 
I) WID BROWN. 11 
 
 DAVID BROWN.* 
 
 The sweet rose soon dies ; but every one 
 loves it while it lasts. So little David Brown 
 soon died ; but every one loved him while he 
 lived, because God made him very good. 
 His heart was at first bad, as the heart of 
 every child is, but God changed it by his grace 
 and gave him a new heart, and that made 
 him very dear to his parents. When he did 
 wrong he was very sad, and when his parents 
 punished him he knew they did right, and 
 only loved them for it. As he sat on his 
 mother's knees he said to her, with a fond 
 smile, " Mamma, you love me, but you don't 
 love my naughty ways, so you punish my 
 naughty ways." David loved to learn texts 
 and hymns, because they made him know 
 about God ; and he often asked his mother, 
 
 * He died January 16, 1834, aged foiir years and a half. 
 
12 DAVID BROWN. 
 
 with tears, to teach him to read, though he 
 was not five years old when he died. When 
 he was out of doors he used to ask his mamma 
 and papa so many things, about the trees and 
 the flowers, the sheep and the birds, the sky 
 and the clouds, and about all that he saw. 
 Sometimes he said, "How good God is to 
 teach the bird to make such a nice warm 
 nest. God puts honey in the flowers for the 
 poor bees, and teaches them how to get it. 
 Why does God let the hawk kill poor robins? 
 I dare say it is for good, else God would not 
 let them. See what nice grass God makes 
 grow for the sheep. I wonder why there are 
 nettles ; but I am sure it is for good, since 
 God made them." 
 
 When the swallows went away he asked, 
 " Where they were gone ?" His brother Ab- 
 ner told him they were gone to Africa to be 
 warm and to get food in winter. " But how 
 do they know the way, and get over the great 
 wide sea ?" " God taught them to fly to 
 Gibraltar, where the sea is narrow." " I won- 
 der what they are seeing in Africa *, 1 wish I 
 was with them, they are all so nice and warm 
 there." As some of the little birds were kill- 
 
DAVID BROWN. 18 
 
 ed for eating the fruit, David, when he saw a 
 Uttle bird, would say, " Does that kind do 
 harm ?" and if ho was told that it did not, he 
 said, " O, I glad we need not shoot it then." 
 
 Once he said, " It is in God's book * Love 
 your neighbour as yourself,' what does it 
 mean ? I love every body, but I sure I do 
 not love myself." His papa told him some 
 things which he did, which showed he loved 
 himself too well. Then he was sad, and said, 
 " Why is it so, papa ? I did not know I loved 
 myself, I sure I did not mean a do it ; I will 
 try love every body as much as I love myself." 
 Sometimes he jumped upon his papa's knee 
 and said, " I love you, I love mamma, and 
 brother and sister, I love every body, and 
 every body loves me." 
 
 These three little children loved each other 
 very much. Abner, who was four years 
 older than David, loved to be with him, taught 
 him, played with him, drew pictures for him, 
 built his bricks, wiped his tears, .and would 
 give up any thing to him. David was never 
 so happy as when he was with Abner, and 
 often when by himself, would think what he 
 could do to make Abby pleased. It was 
 2 
 
14 DAVID BROWN. 
 
 sweet to see these three Httle things sit on 
 one stool, Abby in the middle, with his arms 
 round the necks of the other two, and to hear 
 him tell them what he had read or heard. 
 
 David was also very fond of his parents. 
 When he wanted to play, he would first say, 
 "Dear papa, will it make your head ache 
 more ?" or if he wished to sing, he would say, 
 " Dear mamma, can you bear me to sing my 
 hymns now ?" When his papa came home 
 he used to say, " I sure you very tired, dear 
 papa ;" then he jumped upon his knee, threw 
 his arms round his neck, and said, " Let me 
 smudder (smother) you with kisses. Dear 
 papa, you so very dear to me, me can't tell 
 how dear you are." " But why do you love 
 me ?" " I love you, and you love me, and 
 that makes me love you, and I can't tell you 
 any more about it, only I love you, and I 
 don't know why." 
 
 If at any time his mamma said to him in 
 play, " You don't love me," he was very grave, 
 and said, with a tear, " Please don't say so, 
 mamma ; me don't like you to say so ; it not 
 true, mamma ; you know I love you twenty 
 thousand loves." And if ever they did not 
 
DAVID BROWN. 16 
 
 kiss him when he went to bed, he would say, 
 " You should not forget to kiss me, because I 
 love you so." When his father had been out 
 for some hours, he came running to meet him, 
 and said, " It is such a long time since I saw 
 you, O ! almost all day." 
 
 When Mrs. S., who lived in the village, 
 lost three of her children, he said, " Why does 
 God make poor Mrs. S.'s children die so fast ? 
 in summer she had four little children, and 
 now she has three little graves and one little 
 child ; I hope God will comfort her." As he 
 came from church he looked at those little 
 graves, and said, " Mamma, you have got 
 three little children and one little grave. I 
 hope God won't make you have three little 
 graves and one little child." A few days 
 from that time, he and his brother Abner were 
 laid in the grave near their little brother Wil- 
 liam. Other little children, full of joy and 
 play, may die in a few days as they did : but 
 Abner and David went to heaven, because 
 they loved God. 
 
 Sometimes David heard of those poor hea- 
 then who bow down to idols, and do not know 
 God ; then he used to say, " Why does no- 
 
16 DAVID BROWN. 
 
 body go to teach them about God's Bible ? 
 would they kill any body who went ? I wish 
 J was a man, to go and tell them about Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 As little David loved every body, so he 
 was happy all the day. He liked to hear his 
 parents talk to him ; he liked to learn hymns 
 and texts ; he liked to pray ; he liked to go to 
 church ; he liked to do as he was bid ; he 
 liked to run, and jump, and play. Often while 
 he was at play, he ran up to his mother and 
 said, " You can't think what many comforts 
 God gives me ; O such a many. God is so 
 good. He gives me papa and mamma to love 
 me and take care of me. O see what nice 
 playthings God has given me. See what 
 flowers God makes grow in the garden for 
 me. God gives me all I have." As soon as 
 he waked in the morning he said his hymns 
 in his bed : he knew forty ; he loved to sing 
 them all the day, and when night came, he 
 said, " How soon the day has passed." 
 
 David often thought of God. He used to 
 say, " God is in this roomx ; God is in this field ; 
 God is close beside us ; God takes care of us 
 all the day ; God looks at my heart ; God 
 
DAVID BROWN. 17 
 
 sees what me thinking about ; if God pleased 
 not to keep me, I should die this very minute ; 
 God has kept me all the night." 
 
 One night, when his mother went out of the 
 room, he said, " O mamma, let me come with 
 you, it will be dark." The room was quite 
 dark. But when his mother said, " Is not God 
 in the dark ?" he said, " O, I forgot," and then 
 ran back and sat still till she came ; when he 
 said, " See, God was in the dark all the while, 
 and took care of me." ^ 
 
 As he did not fear the dark, so he did not 
 fear to die. But he often said, " We don't 
 know how soon we may die." Sometimes 
 he stood by the grave of his little brother, and 
 caid he was in heaven. x\nd once, just before 
 he was ill, he said, " When I die they will put 
 my body in the grave, but I shall not be there ; 
 1 shall be in heaven." He said true. The 
 soul will not die when the body dies, but will 
 go to heaven or to hell ; and as God had 
 given him a new heart, he could not go to 
 hell. 
 
 But though David was a good and kind 
 boy, he sometimes was in a passion, for which 
 he was punished. How sad it is that we can- 
 2* 
 
18 DAVID BROWN. 
 
 not put away all sin, and only do what is 
 right. But the punishment did him great good, 
 and he grew more meek and patient. 
 
 Though David w^as full of play, he was 
 never rude ; nor did he like to see any one 
 cruel. He was angry with those cruel boys 
 who took their nests from the poor birds, and 
 said, " How should we like to be taken out of 
 our warm beds and killed ?" Some little boys 
 will do wrong, and then tell a lie to hide it; 
 but David was never known to tell a lie in his 
 life, and he did not like liars. 
 
 Some little boys, if they were alone in the 
 garden, and they saw a tree full of plumbs or 
 of apples, they would take them, though they 
 had been told not : but little David couid be 
 trusted alone in the garden, and would not 
 touch the fruit; or if he ever plucked oae 
 gooseberry, saying, " Me sure one won't make 
 me ill," he always came and told that he had 
 done so. 
 
 If he cut his finger he would say, " O, it 
 not much, it soon better ; please put balsam 
 on it ; it only 'marts a little ; it can't make it 
 well unless it 'marts ; it soon be better." Is 
 not that much better than crying about it ? 
 
DA VII) niiuvvx. 19 
 
 It is best for a little boy not to play with 
 knives ; but if he does cut his finger, he should 
 bear it as David did. 
 
 Jesus Christ when he was on earth fed a 
 great many persons with five loaves of bread, 
 because he was God as well as man, and could 
 make a little bread grow into a great deal ; 
 but when they had had enough, he told them 
 to gather up the bits that were left. This 
 David knew, and did not like any w^aste. 
 When he saw the servant brush away a piece 
 of bread, he would say, " Pick up that, since 
 Jesus said, ' Let nothing be lost.'" If he saw 
 any thing thrown away, he used to say, " God 
 gave it to us, so we must not waste it." How 
 fmlike him are those children who throw 
 away bread, break their playthings, tear their 
 books, and spoil their clothes. What was 
 better still, this little boy loved the Saviour. 
 He used to say, " Jesa Christ love us, I sure 
 ne does, 'cause he died on the cross for us. I 
 wish I could believe on him ; I will pray to 
 him to make me believe on him : will he hear 
 me ?" The day he was taken ill, he jumped 
 up from his playthings, climbed on his father's 
 Imee, put his arms round his neck, and said, 
 
20 DAVID BROWN. 
 
 " I love Jcsa Christ, Jesa Christ loves me." 
 He had good cause to love Jesus Christ. He 
 is nov;^ in heaven ; and if Jesus had not loved 
 him, and died for him, he w^ould have been in 
 hell. Jesus did a great deal more for him 
 than his papa or his mamma could do. Jesus is 
 the best friend of a little child. Every little 
 child should think hov^ good and kind the 
 Lord Jesus is, and like David, should ask God 
 for grace to love him. 
 
 David was not like those children v^ho care 
 little about their sins. When he had done 
 wrong, he could not be happy very soon. 
 After he had been forgiven by his parents he 
 would still look so sad, at last he would run 
 to them and say, " I so sorry, I sorry, O I sor- 
 ry," and then he was happy again. But what 
 made him ever sin ? It was that his heart 
 was at first wicked ; this makes all children 
 do wrong. And they will still do wrong, un- 
 less God gives them a new heart. They 
 should try to leave off each sin, and do all that 
 is right in the sight of God ; but they should 
 still more pray him to make their hearts good ; 
 for if once their hearts are good, they will do 
 what is right. Yet even then the devil will 
 
DAVID BROWN. 21 
 
 tempi them to sin. Though David's heart 
 was changed, still it was not free from all sin. 
 But whenever it made him do wrong he was 
 sorry for it. Often he said, " How I wish 1 
 had no naughty heart. We shall have no 
 naughty heart in heaven, mamma. I wish 
 God would take all my naughty heart away : 
 I wish he would." 
 
 But his heart was made good, though still 
 some sin remained. For he loved texts and 
 hymns, and was always saying them lo him- 
 self; he loved the Sabbath, and he loved 
 prayer. And when God has made a little 
 child hate sin, and love these good things, we 
 may know that he has made him love the Sa- 
 viour too. Often also David talked of heaven, 
 thus : " They will be singing hymns always 
 in heaven. Can Satan get at us in heaven ? 
 I hope God won't let him. When we get to 
 heaven we shall have no naughty hearts. We 
 shall never be sick in heaven." These thous^hts 
 came into his mind at all times. When he 
 was walking with his brother and sister, one 
 of them said, " It is time to turn home ;" on 
 which he said, " Sissa, don't you know we've 
 got no home only heaven ? " 
 
22 DAVID BROWN. 
 
 We cannot stay long in our home on earth 
 but we need not mind, if we have such a hap- 
 py home above. David very soon went from 
 his home on earth ; but God was ready to re- 
 ceive him into heaven. Why should we grieve 
 for him? Lhope we shall be soon where he is. 
 
 One Thursday he was at play in the gar- 
 den, and there came a thick fog. When he 
 came into the house he had a sore throat, the 
 next day he was very ill, and then he died. 
 But he was not afraid, because God was with 
 him. One of his last prayers was this : " God 
 bless me ; make me a good boy ; give me a 
 new heart; forgive me my sins : fill me full of 
 love ; make me love Jesa Christ ; wash away 
 my sins in Jesus' blood ; put thy Holy Spirit 
 into my heart ; take away my naughty heart ; 
 make me to do as I am bid ; make me not un- 
 kind, nor idle, nor selfish ; make me a true 
 child ; make me do the same, when papa and 
 mamma do not see me, as when they do ; 
 make me ready to die when thou shalt be 
 pleased to call me ; take care of me all this 
 day ; take me to heaven when I die, for Christ's 
 sake. Amen." 
 
DAVID BROWN. 23 
 
 God has heard his prayer, and he is now 
 safe. His body Kes in the grave, but he is 
 with God. Will you not try and pray, dear 
 cliildren, that you may be as happy and as 
 good as he was ? 
 
24 LOUISA WOODD MORTLOCK. 
 
 LOUISA WOODD MORTLOCK.* 
 
 Louisa Mortlock was an aflectionate little 
 girl, and very fond of truth. She was some- 
 times self-willed; and did not like to obey ; 
 but this was only till she was four years old. 
 After that she did what her parents wished ; 
 and when they showed her what was wrong 
 in what she said or in what she did, she tried 
 not to say it again or not to do it again. 
 She was afraid of sinning against God ; and 
 it made her very sorry to be told that she 
 was not like the Saviour. When she was 
 four years and a half old she had an illness, 
 and it made her fretful. Her mother then 
 said to her, " This is wrong : how many com- 
 forts you have in illness, which many poor 
 children have not !" This made her burst 
 into tears, and say, " I did not know it was a 
 
 * She was bom July 10, 1810, and died May 8, 1820. 
 
LOUISA WOODD MORTLOCK. 25' 
 
 sin ; pray that God will forgive it, and that I 
 may be more patient, and more like the Savi- 
 our." After this she was more careful about 
 her temper. When she was five years old 
 she could read very well, and learned many 
 verses of the Bible without being told to do 
 so. At family prayer and at public worship 
 she did not look about her, but was quiet and 
 thoughtful. 
 
 Before she was six years old she began tO' 
 read the Bible by herself in private ; and used 
 to speak about what she read. Silly books- 
 did not please her ; but she loved to read the 
 Bible, the History of England, Hymns for In- 
 fant Minds, and other useful books. Yet she 
 was lively, cheerful, and fond of playing with 
 her little friends. God loves us to be happy ; 
 and he has made little children to be fond of 
 play, as well as to take delight in knowing 
 and serving him. 
 
 But though she was a sweet little girl, so 
 dear to her parents, and so happy, she was 
 not to live long on earth. Beifore she was 
 seven years old she had the measles ; and 
 after that she was never quite well again. 
 God took away her health ; but he gave her 
 3 
 
26 LOUISA WOODD MORTLOCK. 
 
 his grace, which was much better ; and this 
 made her patient and wiUing to die. One 
 day her mother told her that perhaps she 
 would never get well : — this did not frighten 
 her ; for she only said, " Well, God knows 
 what is best for me ; I hope, if I should not 
 recover, that I shall go to heaven." When 
 children know, like her, that God takes care 
 of them, nothing can frighten them, and no- 
 thing can make them fret. 
 
 Some time after this her aunt died, whom 
 she loved very much. This also made her 
 think more about dying, and she said to her 
 mother, " I hope God will make me fit to go 
 to heaven, and then I shall see my dear aunt 
 again." How good it is in God to let us hope 
 to see each other again after death. Parents 
 and children, brothers and sisters, are taken 
 from each other by death ; and for a little 
 while they feel sad to be left alone ; but if 
 they love the Lord, they will all be happy to- 
 gether in heaven, and will never part any 
 more. 
 
 As she grew worse in health she grew 
 more pious. One day before she was eight 
 years old, when her mother asked her how 
 
LOUISA WOODD MORTLOCK. 27 
 
 she was, she said, " Sin is my worst com- 
 plaint : when I pray my heart is full of vain 
 thoughts. I do not think I can say ' Thy will 
 be done.' I wish to get well and play about, 
 and I do not feel quite willing to suffer pain." 
 Yet sometimes she said she felt willing even 
 to suffer. And she added, " I often pray that 
 God will pardon my sins and make me holy ; 
 but my sins are so many. Will Christ for- 
 give me ?" And then she burst into tears. 
 God loves little children to be sorry for their 
 sins ; and those who feel them the most are 
 almost always the best children. To think 
 little of our sins does not show that we are 
 good, but that we are proud. One day, when 
 the first chapter of the first Epistle of Peter 
 was read to her, she liked it so much that 
 she begged it might be read to her every 
 day ; and she very soon could say it by 
 heart. 
 
 When she was eight, she got a little 
 better ; and then she wished to begin her 
 lessons again, saying, " If 1 should recover, 
 it will be a sad thing to have lost so much 
 time." But she had not strength to learn 
 much herself, and therefore, to be useful, she 
 
28 LOUISA WOODD MORTLOCK. 
 
 had a few poor children brought to her, heard 
 them read the Bible, and asked them ques- 
 tions on what they read. It was a pretty 
 sight to see that little girl of eight years old, 
 trying to teach other little children the way 
 to heaven. For some time after this she had 
 great fears about her state. She felt deeply 
 her sins ; she was not as holy as she wished 
 to be ; and she was afraid that it was the 
 thought of death which made her care about 
 being good, and that she was not truly pious. 
 But at length God gave her more faith ; she 
 could believe his promises and trust his good- 
 ness. She still grew worse in health, and did 
 not expect ever to recover. But she hoped 
 to be blessed after death ; and said, " I trust, 
 through the merit of Christ, I shall be pardon- 
 ed, accepted, and taken to heaven : there all 
 is well, no weary body, no sinful soul." An- 
 other day, after speaking of the love of God 
 and of Christ, and of the goodness of God the 
 Holy Spirit in drawing sinners to seek God, 
 she said, " I am much happier now than when 
 1 was well and used to play about ; play 
 amuses us, but one verse of Scripture gives 
 more real pleasure than anv of those amuse- 
 
LOUISA WOODD MORTLOCK. 29 
 
 ments." Another day she said, " How we 
 ought to love the Redeemer ! By dying he 
 took away the sting of death, and is gone to 
 prepare a place for us. Sin is our greatest 
 enemy, but it will never enter heaven. When 
 we are made meet the Lord will take us to 
 glory." And when a friend said to her, 
 " How shall we enter heaven ? " she said, 
 " Through the merit of Christ ; he came to 
 save sinners like me. I do not mean that 
 there will ever be any thing in us to merit 
 heaven, but only that we shall be more fit to 
 enjoy heaven." 
 
 Another day she said to her sister, " Dear- 
 est Mary, I fear you are not much concerned 
 about the salvation of your soul. O, how I 
 pray and wish that you and all my dear cou- 
 sins, may learn to love and serve God ; then 
 you will be happy, whether you live or die." 
 
 After this she was patient, and quite wil- 
 ling to die. She said that all her hope was 
 in Jesus, and asked her mother to pray that 
 she might soon go. She urged her cousins 
 to seek God. She was thankful for all the 
 comforts she had in her illness, and said that 
 she could lie on her bed and think on many 
 3* 
 
30 LOUISA WOODD MORTLOCK. 
 
 chapters and verses of Scripture which she 
 had learned by heart. One day she said to 
 her sister, " Dear Mary, the hope of glory, 
 through the blood of Christ, makes me happy ;" 
 and the next day she added, " The first part 
 of my illness I could not bear to think I should 
 not recover. I v^^as afraid my sins were not 
 pardoned, and that I should not go to heaven. 
 But as I have grown worse in body, I have 
 understood more of the love and grace of 
 Jesus Christ, and now I have no fear." 
 
 One day her grandfather said to her, " How 
 long, my dear child, have you had such 
 serious thoughts ?" She answered, " When 
 I was about five years old I used to think a 
 great deal about God, and then I used to pray 
 to God to give me his grace." " And what 
 prayers did you use ?" " I often used my own 
 words, and I was very fond of your little 
 prayer printed on a card." Another day she 
 said to her mother she had been thinking of 
 the bliss of heaven, and added, " It is to see 
 Christ, to love him, to praise him for his love 
 to sinners : and here on earth, to hope in 
 'Christ for pardon, to submit to his guidance, 
 
LOUISA WOODD MORTLOCK. 31 
 
 and to praise him for his grace, is heaven 
 begun." 
 
 In this sweet way she spoke often for many 
 days. She spent much time in prayer : she 
 mourned for her want of faith and love, but 
 rested on Christ and felt no fear of death. As 
 she believed in the love of Christ she wished 
 to die, but at the same time was willing to 
 stay on earth as long as God pleased. When 
 her maid and her sister cried, because they 
 saw her so thin and weak, she told them not 
 to cry ; and she looked on with joy to the 
 time when her dear mother would come after 
 her to heaven. In this calm state she died. 
 Her last words were, "I am very happy." 
 She then laid her little head upon her mother's 
 shoulder, who was nursing her, and, without 
 one sigh or struggle, her spirit went to God. 
 She was only nine years and ten months old 
 when she died ; but she had lived long enough 
 to be made fit for heaven, through faith in 
 Christ, and death was to her gain. 
 
ANNIE T. 
 
 ANNIE T,* 
 
 Little Annie was fair and rosy, with blue 
 eyes, and light hair that curled over her large 
 high forehead. How sweet she looked to 
 her parents ! But like those fair, bright 
 clouds which we see edged with gold at sun- 
 set, she was soon to lose her bright eyes and 
 her rosy colour. Yet, her parents could, 
 even then, think of her with joy ; for, though 
 her body turned to dust, her soul went up to 
 God. 
 
 When she was a little baby she sat on her 
 mother's knee at the time of family prayer, 
 and was taught to sit still and quiet. Her 
 father always read the Bible and prayed be- 
 fore breakfast; but one day, when he had 
 been very busy, he was going to breakfast 
 
 * She was bora Nov. 14, 1831, and died March 5, 1835, 
 aged three years and three months. 
 
ANNIE T. 33 
 
 without reading. Annie, who was a Httle 
 more than a year old, did not Hke them not 
 to read ; so she put out her hand to stop him, 
 and said, " Ather, ather (father, father) no, 
 no." Her mother did not at first know what 
 she meant, and said, "What do you want, 
 Annie ?" Annie then looked up at the shelf 
 where the Bible lay. Her father then said, 
 " Is it the Bible, Annie ?" " Is, is," she said, 
 and clapped her little hands, because her fa- 
 ther knew what she meant. This made her 
 father take down the Bible and read, while 
 the little girl sat to Hsten, with her hands 
 clasped as usual. 
 
 Before she was two years old she came to 
 her father one day and said, " Poor mother 
 very poorly !" " Yes, Annie," said her father, 
 " and father very poorly too." This made the 
 dear little child burst into tears ; and, as he 
 was lying down, she ran to fetch a cushion, 
 and she put it under his head. Another time 
 she saw a boy who had only one eye ; instead 
 of laughing at him, as some wicked children 
 would do, she was so sorry for him, and, com- 
 ing to her father, she Hsped out, " Poor boy, 
 ather ! poor boy !" 
 
34 ANNIE T. 
 
 Another thing which made her parents love 
 her very much w^as, that she seemed to have 
 no self-will at all. Whatever she was told to 
 do she did, without a cross word ; without a 
 sullen look, without a murmur, without a tear. 
 She liked to walk out with her nurse : and 
 one day her nurse, to try her temper, put on 
 her bonnet and tippet, and, when she was full 
 of joy at the thought of going out, took them 
 off again, and said she must not go. Dear 
 little Annie did not fret in the least. Another 
 day, when she had a bunch of grapes in her 
 hand, of which she was very fond, her father^ 
 who wished to see what she would do, asked 
 her to give him one. She picked one off, and 
 said, " Here, father, here." He asked for an- 
 other, and she picked it off, and said, " Here, 
 father." Then he asked another, and an- 
 other, till she picked them all off, without 
 leaving one for herself, and then threw the 
 stalk away, without one tear, and without 
 one complaint. I do not doubt that her father 
 gave her another bunch of grapes, or some- 
 thing better, when he saw that she was so 
 kind. Another time she had several oranges 
 given to her, and though she liked them 
 
ANNIE T. 35 
 
 much, she gave them all away : indeed she 
 was ever ready to part with all that she had. 
 
 Her mother had spoken to her of the love 
 of Jesus Christ, and of the goodness of God, 
 our heavenly Father ; and often she heard 
 this little girl, when alone, singing to herself, 
 " Jesus, Jesus ! our Father, our Father !" and 
 if she heard any silly nursery rhyme sung, 
 she would say, " No, no ; Jesus, Jesus !" She 
 meant, that she liked much better to hear of 
 him, than of that nonsense which people 
 sometimes speak to little children. 
 
 If her little brother, who was more light 
 than she was, did not sit still at prayer-time, 
 she used to say to him, as soon as the prayer 
 was finished, " Naughty boy, naughty boy !" 
 Besides joining in the family prayer, she liked 
 to follow her father, if ever she saw him go 
 into his room to pray. She then sat still by 
 his side, when he read the Bible ; and when 
 he knelt down to pray, she knelt near him till 
 he rose from his knees. Often, too, she was 
 found on her knees by herself, up-stairs ; and 
 once, having been left some hours by herself 
 alone, through the neglect of a person who 
 was then taking care of her, instead of cry- 
 
36 ANNIE T. 
 
 ing and fretting to be alone, she was found 
 upon her knees, and seemed as happy as if 
 she had been playing all the while with her 
 Httle brother. 
 
 When she was ill, she took, without com- 
 plaint, the medicine which they gave her ; and 
 though the blisters made her sore, she did not 
 fret about them. When one blister had to be 
 taken off, and the place was very sore, her 
 mother could not bear to pain her, and asked 
 her father to take it off; but he also knew how 
 much it must hurt her, and he could not bear 
 to do it. While they were both afraid to do 
 it, Annie saw what they felt, and taking hold 
 of the edge of the blister, tore it off at once, 
 and said, " There, mother !" She was then 
 only three years old. Though she was so 
 very young, I cannot but think that God had 
 given to her his grace ; for, while all she did 
 and said was so good, she seemed, above all 
 things, to love the Lord Jesus Christ. When 
 she was obliged to keep in her room, her fa- 
 ther used daily to come and pray with her ; 
 but one day, being busy, he did not come at 
 the right time. She had been watching for 
 him, and said, " Mother, father has not been 
 
ANNIE T. 37 
 
 up to prayer." When he came, he said to 
 her, "What do you wish for?" "Pray — 
 read," she answered. " What shall we read 
 about ?" " Jesus Christ." Three days before 
 her death she called her parents up at three 
 o'clock in the morning, calling out, " Sing Je- 
 sus !" and when they ceased, she said, " More, 
 more of Jesus !" 
 
 The morning before her death, when a lady 
 whom she much loved, came in to see her, 
 she said to her, " Sing ; sing Jesus !" The 
 lady asked whether she thought she was go- 
 ing to him. " Yes ; quick," she answered. 
 An hour before her death she called for her 
 father ; and when he came, she fixed her eyes 
 upon him, and said, " Jesus, Jesus." He read 
 to her a hymn respecting the Saviour, and 
 shortly afterwards she died, being only three 
 years and three months old. When her pa- 
 rents pass by her grave, as they go to churchy 
 they think that their little darling is safe and 
 blessed, and it comforts them in their grief. 
 
38 JAMES BUDGE JONES. 
 
 JAMES BUDGE JONES.* 
 
 James Jones was a pious little boy, who 
 feared and loved God when he was very 
 young. God is so good to us that we ought 
 to love him. He gives us all that we have ; 
 he takes care of us night and day ; he keeps 
 us from being sick ; he sent his Son Jesus 
 Christ to save us from hell ; and we cannot 
 love him too much. The thought of these 
 things made little James, when he was about 
 four years old, throw his arms round his fa- 
 ther's neck and kiss him, and say, " I love 
 you, father, and I love God ; and when I go 
 to heaven I will kiss him too." A little child 
 cannot kiss God, because God is a Spirit, who 
 has not a body as we have ; and little James 
 knew this when he was older. But though 
 
 * He was born May 17, 1817, and died May 26, 1826, 
 aged nine years. 
 
JAMES BUDGE JONES. 39 
 
 he did not at this time know every thing about 
 God, still he could love him for his goodness. 
 As he loved God, so he loved to think of 
 heaven, where pious children see the Saviour 
 face to face. One day, when he saw a sea- 
 gull rise out of the sea, spread out its wings, 
 and soar up to the sky, " Look, look," he said, 
 " Brother William, when I die I shall fly up 
 to heaven like that bird." But cliildren can- 
 not go to heaven unless they are first made fit 
 to go there. Little James could never fly up 
 to heaven as that sea-gull flew up to the sky, 
 unless he learned to be sorry for sin, to trust 
 in Christ, to do the will of God, and to pray 
 often for his grace. But all this he learned. 
 When he once forgot to pray in the morning, 
 he could not be quite happy through all the 
 day ; and when he was ill he often begged 
 his father to pray with him, and said he could 
 not be comfortable without it. 
 
 His fear of God made him love to do right. 
 If his father told him to do any thing, he did 
 it. If he was told not to speak of any thing 
 which he heard, he never spoke of it. If he 
 was sent with any message, he took care to 
 say nothing but what he was told to say, and 
 
40 JAMES BUDGE JONES. 
 
 he was never known by his father to tell one 
 lie. The longer he lived the more he loved 
 God : and at last he had such joy in God as 
 very few older Christians have ; which made 
 •him say to his parents, " I am so happy, I 
 know not what to do ; God has done so much 
 for me : the day of my death will be happier 
 than the day of my birth : God loves me and 
 has pardoned all my sins : who would have 
 thought that God would be so kind to such a 
 little boy as I am ! I am happy, I am very 
 happy !" And so he passed away into glory 
 lo be with Jesus Christ, in whom he trusted, 
 when he was only nine years and nine days 
 old. 
 
LITTLE NANNDTTE. 41 
 
 LITTLE NANNETTE.* 
 
 Little Nannette was only three years old 
 when she loved to think of God, and to hear 
 of Jesus Christ. As she walked by her mo 
 ther's side she used to say, " God made those 
 flowers and trees ;" and when she looked up 
 to the stars in the sky and to the bright moon, 
 she used to say, " God made them." When 
 she heard that the Lord Jesus Christ died 
 upon the cross to save us from hell, she said 
 to her mother, " I will love him and try to 
 serve him." Perhaps it was this wish that 
 made her pray ; for before she was four years 
 old she often left her play in the house or in 
 the garden that she might kneel down and 
 pray. And though at first she could not say 
 much, she soon learned to pray about every 
 thing ; and thought that God would give her, 
 
 * She died July 9, 1819. 
 
42 LITTLE NANNETTE. 
 
 for Christ's sake, all that she asked for, if it 
 was good for her. And so he will to every 
 little child who prays, for Jesus has said, " If 
 ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do 
 it." Nothing pleased her so much as to hear 
 her mother tell her about God ; and when they 
 were quite alone she used to say, " Come now. 
 mamma, we shall be so happy, and talk of 
 God." And when others did not talk of him, 
 she loved to think of him, and often said, when 
 any thing made her happy or pleased her, 
 " O how good the Lord is." 
 
 Like other pious children, she was very 
 fond of her parents. When her father was 
 away she counted the hours till he would come 
 back; and if he stayed away beyond her bed- 
 thne, she sometimes left a httle letter to be 
 given to him. When her mother went from 
 home, Nannette always said, " Good bye, 
 mamma, God bless you and take care of you, 
 and bring you safe home." When her mother 
 was gone she often prayed that God would 
 bring her back soon, and when her mother 
 came home, she was almost always watching 
 for her. Once her mother was very ill, and 
 little Nannette could not see her very often. 
 
LITTLE NANNETTE. 43 
 
 This she was very sorry for, yet when she 
 did come into her mother's room, and was put 
 upon her bed, and had given her many kisses, 
 and wished so much to stay, still she said, " I 
 had better go now, mamma, I am afraid of 
 tiring you." As she was so good a child, 
 through the grace of God, this made her hap- 
 py. She loved to jump, and run, and play, 
 and cUmb with her brother ; and often she 
 made her father put her in the cherry tree, 
 where she loved to sit like a little squirrel, 
 perched among the boughs. Yet though God 
 made her so happy, she could feel for others. 
 When it rained, or when it was cold, she used 
 to grieve to think how many had not got a 
 nice warm home as she had ; and if she saw 
 any child half naked, she would take some of 
 her clothes to her mother, and beg that she 
 might give them to the poor child. God loves 
 us to feel for the poor, and to give them what 
 we can spare, instead of wasting it on toys 
 and trash. 
 
 Before she was four years old, she began 
 to pray daily in the middle of the day, as well 
 as morning and night ; and from the age of 
 three she always wished to have a psalm read, 
 
^ LITTLE NANNETTE. 
 
 or a hymn sung to her, after she was in bed. 
 Before she was five, she had the measles, and 
 they left her weak and thin, so that she could 
 not jump and play as she did before. Six 
 months after this came the whooping-cough, 
 and that made her much worse, — but she still 
 grew in grace. How sweet it must have been 
 to her mother to hear her say, " You know, 
 mamma, it is the will of God : we can't help 
 it, and must bear it as well as we can." She 
 did not like medicine, but she prayed God to 
 help her to take it like a good child, and to 
 bless it to her, and then she took it. 
 
 She had now lost all her strength, and 
 could not play or laugh as she once had done ; 
 her brother could not amuse her now, nor 
 could her playthings : yet she was happy, be- 
 cause she loved to pray and read the Bible, 
 and sing hymns, more than she had ever loved 
 her p] ay-things or her games. When she 
 sung any hymn she often put words of her own, 
 besides those which were in the hymn. One 
 day the curtain was drawn between her and 
 her mother, so that her mother could write 
 down what she sung without being seen. In 
 a sweet, loud voice this dear child then sung 
 
LITTLE NANNETTE. 45 
 
 thus her own thoughts of praise, " Serve the 
 Lord, all ye people : praise him for the Sa- 
 viour : you v^'ould have gone to hell if he had 
 not died for you on the cross. O, Jesus — O, 
 Jesus, come for me, bless, and take me. O, 
 Jesus, my Lord, let me to thy bosom fly. It 
 would be the happiest place I could be in, to 
 praise the Lord for ever. O, my Saviour, 
 come and take me to thy dwelling ! O thou 
 who canst save every one from sin who 
 cleaves to thee !" 
 
 Often, too, she said to her mother, " How 
 I long to see God! O, if I could see Jesus 
 Christ, for I feel to love him very much, the 
 way I love you, mamma. Do you think he 
 will let me lay my head in his bosom, the way 
 I sit with you ?" Often she wished to die, 
 that she might be with him. And when her 
 father said, " Should you like to leave mamma 
 and me to go ?" she burst into tears at the 
 thought of leaving them, but still she said, 
 " Yes." She loved her father so much, that 
 she could not bear him to be long away. If 
 her mother was away from her for a few min- 
 utes, she wished her to come back ; if the cur- 
 tain hid her, she wished her to come round 
 
46 LITTLE NANNETTE. 
 
 to the Other side of the bed, that she might 
 always see her ; she loved to hold her mother's 
 hands, and to kiss them ; yet when they asked 
 her whether she was willing to go to Jesus, 
 she said, " Yes." She loved her parents and 
 her home on earth much, but she loved the 
 Saviour and her home in heaven more. Hea- 
 ven is happier than earth. She was very 
 fond of hymns, and said them over and over 
 to herself whilst she was at her play or at 
 work. Often her mother saw her, when she 
 did not know that any one was looking at her, 
 lift up her eyes to heaven, and sing in her 
 own words, " O, Lord, my God, my Father." 
 Often, too, when she was too weak to kneel, 
 she sat in her mother's lap, and prayed for 
 herself, for her brother, for her family, and 
 for the heathen. She was a very little girl, 
 and her prayers were very simple ; but God 
 loves to hear even little children pray. Some 
 of her words which her mother wrote down 
 were these, — " O, Lord, my God, my Father, 
 I am not good enough to call thee Father, yet 
 thou wilt make me complete in Christ Jesus, 
 and hast a crown for me. O my God, bless 
 my brothers ; may they h^e crowns : let 
 
LITTLE NANNETTE. 47 
 
 there be a crown for my mother. O my God, 
 thou art a long suffering God. Make me meek 
 and holy like the gentle Lamb of God in 
 heaven." 
 
 While she was so ill, her little brother Pen- 
 dock, whom she dearly loved, caught the 
 whooping-cough, and died. Nannette was 
 asleep when he died. As soon as she woke 
 she said, " Mamma, Penny is not here." "No, 
 love." Then she added, " Penny is taking a 
 long sleep." " A very long one, my love." 
 At length she said, " May be he is gone to 
 heaven." She was then told that he was gone 
 there. His spirit was gone to be with Christy 
 but his little body lay cold and stiff on the bed 
 where he used to sleep. Nannette wished to 
 see him, and when she saw his sweet little 
 face among the flowers which were strewn 
 over him, she only smiled. Why did she 
 smile ? She had said to her mother before, 
 " We shall all soon follow him," and I think 
 she smiled because she hoped soon to be with 
 him in heaven. That night she told her mo- 
 ther, she was twice going to be sorry for him, 
 but that she would not let herself 
 
 It was not long before she followed him as 
 
48 LITTLE NANNETTE. 
 
 she had said. Every day she grew more thin 
 and weak, and her mother told her she would 
 soon be in heaven. It did not make her sad 
 to think that she must die ; but she said, " O, 
 I am glad of it, there is no more pain or sor- 
 row there." In that blessed place she now is, 
 with Jesus Christ, and with other pious chil- 
 dren who loved him as she did : and we must 
 get ready to go there too. She was only five 
 years and five months old when she died. 
 And if you dear children, are older than that, 
 you ought to know the Saviour better than she 
 did, and to love him better. 
 
XilTTLE ELIZABETH. 40 
 
 LITTLE ELIZABETH,* 
 
 Elizabeth was a little girl who was very 
 fond of knowledge. When she was only five 
 years old she had a chilblain so bad that she 
 could not put her foot to the ground, and was 
 forced to sit on the sofa nearly all day long ; 
 but she was able to please herself with her 
 little books all the day. Her aunt, who then 
 saw her, could not but love her for being so 
 patient, and so good tempered. The next 
 year, when her aunt was again staying in the 
 house, she came almost every day into her 
 room with the Bible, to read some chapters to 
 her ; and when her aunt said, " You are very 
 fond of your Bible," she pressed it to her bo- 
 som, and said, "My dear, dear Bible ; how I 
 love you !" She loved other books well ; but 
 
 * She was bom September 16, 1814 and died April 2^ 
 1823. 
 
 5 
 
50 LITTLE ELIZABETH. 
 
 she loved the word of God best of all. One 
 day, she and her sister being left with another 
 aunt who was sick, they did all that they 
 could to amuse her. At length Bessy went 
 for a book, and came back saying, " Now I 
 think I shall amuse you ; indeed I am sure I 
 shall. This is such a pretty book !" Little 
 children should always try in this way to 
 please others, and not think too much about 
 themselves. Though she was very young, 
 yet she showed, in many ways, that God had 
 given her a new heart. It was her delight to 
 talk of heaven. One day she came to her 
 mother, and said, " Oh, mamma ! only think 
 what Louisa says ! She would not wish to 
 be in heaven, because there are no dolls 
 there !" " And what did you say to her ?" " I 
 told her, mamma, that we should want no doll, 
 nor any thing else in heaven ; for we should 
 be always praising God there." She could 
 not bear that any one should break the Sab- 
 bath ; and when she saw, one Sunday, the 
 boys of the village sliding on the ice, she said 
 to her mother, " Oh, what a shame it is f(>i 
 those boys to play and idle on the Sabbatn 
 instead of reading their Bibles !" She her- 
 
LITTLE ELIZABETH. 51 
 
 self loved the Sabbath, and she loved to go 
 to ihe house of God. As she could not bear 
 to see the Sabbath broken, so she did not like 
 the name of God to be taken in vain. She 
 had a little French book, with pretty stories, 
 of which she was very fond ; but the name 
 of God was sometimes used lightly in it, 
 which made her so angry, that she brought a 
 pen and ink to her mother, that she might blot 
 out the places where it was so used, and said, 
 " I am sure it was not a good man who wrote 
 this book ; a believer in Jesus would not have 
 done so." 
 
 For so young a child she read a great deal, 
 and among other things, she read about the 
 Fafjuirs in India. These are heathens, who 
 do not know God, and who to please, as they 
 think, their wicked gods, cover themselves 
 willi dirt ; or stand on one leg for two or 
 three years ; or hold up their arm till it grows 
 stif]', so that they cannot put it down again ; 
 or sit in the blazing sun between hot fires. 
 Wiien she read of these Faquirs she used to 
 say, that if they knew any thing of the Gos- 
 pel they would not do so, for it could never do 
 them any good. If ever she read of any per- 
 
52 LITTLE ELIZABETH. 
 
 son in a book, she used to say, " Mamma, was 
 he a good man ? Did he beheve in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ?" This it was her own chief 
 desire to do. One day, she said to her mo- 
 ther, " How I wish to love God more, and to 
 pray to him more ! but my own wricked heart 
 and the devil won't let me." Though she said 
 the devil would not let her be good, she knew 
 that the power of Satan is no excuse for our 
 being wicked ; for she added, " You know, 
 mamma, if our hearts were not evil we 
 should never mind the devil ; he could not 
 succeed against us." The devil cannot make 
 us wicked ; he can only tempt us to do evil ; 
 so that we ought not to give way to him. 
 And Bessy did not give way to him; for 
 though she mourned that she could not pray 
 as she ought, yet she prayed much more than 
 many little girls. Often she went to pray 
 alone, and sometimes she took with her her 
 little sister that they might pray together. At 
 these times, as she told her mother, she pray- 
 ed in secret that God would give her a new 
 heart, and would make her a good girl : and 
 always she prayed in the name of Christ, be- 
 cause, as she said, her prayers could only be 
 
LITTLE ELIZABETH. 63 
 
 heard through him. But why did this Httle 
 girl, who prayed so much more than others of 
 her own age, mourn that she did not pray 
 enough ? It is because the best people are 
 always the most humble ; and the more they 
 love and serve God, the more they know that 
 he ought to be loved and served much 
 better. 
 
 As little Bessy was humble, so she was 
 very kind. When her mother was ill in bed 
 in winter, and the room was cold, she used to 
 leave her play-fellows in the warm room, and 
 creep up softly to the bed-side, with the Bible 
 in her hand, and say, " Mamma, will you let 
 me stay with you ? Can I do any thing for 
 you ? Shall I read you a chapter in the Bi- 
 ble V There are many little children who 
 would much rather play in the warm room, 
 than read the Bible to their sick parent in the 
 cold one : but God had made little Bessy his 
 own child. 
 
 She was very fond of reading, and read a 
 great deal for her age, both English and 
 French ; but what she liked to read best was 
 the account of our Saviour's sufferings : these 
 often made her cry ; and, as she loved our 
 5* 
 
64 LITTLE ELIZABETH. 
 
 Saviour for his kindness when she was on 
 earth, how much better she loves him now 
 she is with him in heaven! Though she at 
 first feared the dark, yet, as she knew God 
 was m the dark as well as in the light, she 
 lost all her fear, and said one day to her mo- 
 ther, " How foolish it is of Louisa to mind 
 being in the dark ! I never mind it now. 
 Sure God can watch over us, whether it is 
 light or not." 
 
 Once, like other children, she and her sister 
 had a little quarrel ; but she put an end to it 
 by saying to her sister, " You know that we 
 ought to love as brethren." God has said 
 this in his word ; and she wished to do as 
 God had said she ought. 
 
 Once also she and her little sister had done 
 something which was wrong ; but when her 
 mother told her how wrong it was, she was 
 not sullen about it. She did not say, I do 
 not care about being punished ; nor did she 
 deny that she had done wrong ; but she was 
 sorry for her fault, and said to her mother, 
 "Dear mamma, we are like the rebellious 
 children of Israel, who did evil again in the 
 sight of the Lord." How sweet it is to see 
 
LITTLE ELIZABETH. 55 
 
 little children sorry for their faults, and to 
 hear them meekly confess that they have 
 done wrong ! 
 
 As she took pains not to grieve her mother 
 by being naughty, so she loved to comfort 
 her when she saw her grieved by any thing 
 else. If ever she saw her mother weep, she 
 began to weep too, and would put her little 
 arms round her neck, and tell her not to cry. 
 
 But though this dear little girl was so good 
 and so kind, yet, like some other good little 
 children, she was very soon taken away from 
 her paj'ents, who loved her so fondly. It 
 pleased God, who is good, and who knows 
 what is best, to let her die when she was very 
 young. She was a strong and healthy little 
 girl ; but first she had the measles, and, when 
 she was well again, then she caught the 
 whooping-cough, and of that she died. A 
 little girl may be playing one day, with a rosy 
 cheek and bright eyes, laughing and running 
 over the whole house, and, in a week from 
 that time may be cold, and stiff, and dead. 
 I have known some children die so ; but if 
 children trust in Jesus, and love him, and try 
 to do his will, they will go to be with him 
 
56 LITTLE ELIZABETH. 
 
 when they die ; and so, I doubt not, Httle 
 Bessy did. 
 
 When she was ill she wished her father, 
 who was very dear to her, to stay with her 
 always ; but when night came she did not 
 like him to sit up with her, lest he should be 
 tired. So she begged him to go to his own 
 bed ; and when he would not go, because his 
 dear little child was so ill, then she made him 
 lie down at the foot of her bed ; for she w^ould 
 not have him tire himself by sitting up all 
 night. When the day came, and she was 
 very ill, and in great pain, she took her fa- 
 ther's hand and kissed it, and would not let it 
 go ; and when he spoke to her about the pain 
 which Jesus had borne for us, it made her 
 very quiet ; and, though there were drops of 
 sweat upon her face, she only said, " My dear 
 Saviour sweated great drops of blood !" 
 
 As her father at this time thought that she 
 might die, he wished to hear her say how she 
 hoped to be saved ; and this made him ask 
 her some questions, to which she gave the 
 following answers : 
 
 " Why ought we to love God ?" 
 
LITTLE ELIZABETH. 57 
 
 " Because he is a Father to us, and sent his 
 Son into the world." 
 
 "Why did he send his Son into the world ?'* 
 
 *'To save sinners." 
 
 " How did he save them ?" 
 
 "By dying as a sacrifice for them." 
 
 " What do you mean by his dying as a sa- 
 crifice?" 
 
 "He was s^ain in the room of those who 
 deserve to be punished." 
 
 " Why was it necessary that he should die 
 for us?" 
 
 "Because of the fall, papa." 
 
 "How do we receive salvation?" 
 
 " Through faith." 
 
 " When do we obtain faith ?" 
 
 " When we are born again by the Spirit." 
 
 Her father was glad to see that she knew 
 so well the way in which sinners are saved ; 
 and he was now going to stop, for it was in 
 the middle of the night, and he would not tire 
 her. But she would not let him stop, begging 
 him to tell her more about Christ ; and when 
 he was going again to stop, she said, " Go on, 
 dear papa ! go on !" nor would she lei hiin 
 cease till she was quite tired, and fell into a 
 
58 LITTLE ELIZABETH. 
 
 short sleep. Did she not seem getting ready 
 to go into that world where they see the Sa- 
 viour face to face, and are never tired of lov- 
 ing and praising him ? 
 
 All through her illness she loved her father 
 to read to her the Bible, and to talk to her 
 about it. Her knowledge of it was very 
 great. She had learned by heart the whole 
 of the four Gospels, and had ^said three of 
 them twice over. She had translated to her 
 mother the whole of the book of Psalms in 
 French, had learned many of them by heart, 
 and had read much of the French Bible be- 
 sides. She had also read over many other 
 good books. 
 
 While she was so fond of reading the Bi- 
 ble, and learning it, she wanted to learn every 
 thing else. She knew something about plants 
 and flowers, and used often to talk about them 
 to the gardener, who said, after her death, " I 
 wonder my master and mistress ever expect- 
 ed Miss Bessy to live. She was too wonder- 
 ful a child. I learned more from her when 
 she has been walking in the garden, on all 
 subjects, than I ever did from any one else in 
 my hfe." But the gardener was not wise to 
 
LITTLE ELIZABETH. 59 
 
 say that this made it hkely she would die ; 
 because good and wise children are just as 
 likely to live, when they are healthy and 
 strong, as any others ; and any child may die 
 of the whooping-cough. God was pleased to 
 take little Bessy away, or she might have been 
 alive at this day. 
 
 Besides reading and asking about flowers, 
 she was also fond of learning about birds and 
 insects, and often came with stories about 
 them to her papa, who loved to hear them. 
 Thus she liked to read about many things. 
 But, whatever she read about, it was a plea- 
 sure to teach her, because she. was so thank- 
 ful and kind. One day her mother, who was 
 weak, was bending over a large map, to shov/ 
 her the places, when she said, " Dear mamma, 
 I know every place quite well, you need not 
 bend over these large maps : I will point out 
 every spot with my finger." Who would not 
 love to teach any lesson to such a child ? 
 
 When she was ill she read the life of little 
 Nannette, and said, " Papa, what a good child 
 little Nannette was ! How well she ascd to 
 take her medicine !" How glad her papa 
 must have been w4icu he heard her praise 
 
60 LITTLE ELIZABETH. 
 
 Nannette, to see her just as pious and just as 
 patient ! All through her illness she never 
 murmured and was never cross ; but wher. 
 she was in great pain she would begin to 
 pray, or ask her father to pray for her ; and 
 this helped her to bear it. As long as she 
 could she took her bitter medicines as well as 
 Nannette did ; and when, at last, she could 
 scarcely swallow any thing, she would meek- 
 ly say, "Really, dear papa, I would take it if 
 I could ; but I can take nothing now." Not 
 being able to eat any thing, with a dreadful 
 cough, she grew worse and worse. Her pa- 
 rents could only pity her, and pray for her. 
 At length the last hour came. The dreadful 
 cough tore her poor chest: she could not 
 speak. All she could do, while her father in 
 agony of heart, kissed her dear lips again and 
 again, was to falter out faintly, " Papa, mam- 
 ma." These were the last words she spoke, 
 and then their darling child lay still in death. 
 
 Eight years and seven months were all that 
 she had lived with her parents upon earth ; 
 but she will live for ever and ever with them 
 in heaven, and this cheered them in their loss. 
 
 As they stood over her coffin, and saw her 
 
LITTLE ELIZABETH. 61 
 
 sweet face among the flowers which were 
 put around it ; so pale, so cold, so still, they 
 could think, " She will rise again to die no 
 more ; she will never suffer any more pain ; 
 she is with the Redeemer ; we shall soon see 
 her again :" and this thought could make them 
 bless God in their sorrow. Should your pious 
 parents, my dear children, ever see you put 
 into the coffin, will they be able to bless God 
 for your happiness in heaven ? O, if you ever 
 made a prayer in your lives, go now and 
 pray earnestly to God that he will prepare 
 you for heaven, as he prepared little Bessy ; 
 that you may love him as she loved him ; and 
 be to your parents as great a joy as she was 
 to her's. 
 
 6 
 
62 PHCEBE BARTLETT. 
 
 PHGEBE BARTLETT.^ 
 
 When Phoebe Bartlett was about four years 
 old, her brother, who was a pious boy, seven 
 years older than her, talked to her about be- 
 ing saved. This made little Phoebe pray 
 very much to God to save her. Some other 
 little children say a short prayer with their 
 lips every morning and every night ; but she 
 prayed from her heart, alone in her room, 
 three times a day. She so much wished God 
 to save her, that she could not help praying. 
 One day her mother heard her pray very loud 
 in her room : she could not help praying loud, 
 because she was so much afraid that she would 
 not be saved. This was her prayer : " Pray, 
 blessed Lord, give me salvation I pray, beg, 
 pardon all my sins." When she came out of 
 
 * Of Northampton, Massachusetts, was bora Maix-h, 1731, 
 and lived till March 30, 1789. ., 
 
PHCEBE BARTLETT. 68 
 
 the room she still was crying, because she 
 was afraid she should go to hell. Her mo- 
 ther tried to comfort her : but she could not. 
 She then went back again to her room to 
 pray, and there asked God very often to save 
 her. At length when her mother, who had 
 been called away from home, came back, 
 Phoebe met her with a happy smile, and said, 
 ** I can find God now." " I love God better 
 than any thing." " I was afraid of going to 
 hell, but now I shall not." She now began to 
 wish very much that her sisters might be saved. 
 When her mother was telling Abigail to prepare 
 to die, Phoebe began to cry, and said, " Poor 
 Nabby." Then when she saw Eunice and 
 Naomi, she could not help crying again, and 
 said, " Poor Eunice, poor Ami." And when 
 she was asked why she cried, she said, " She 
 was afraid they would go to hell." The next 
 three days she also sought God with all her 
 heart ; but tried to hide from every one the 
 tears which often ran down her cheeks. 
 
 From that time she lived like a child of 
 God. She sat still at family prayers, and lis- 
 tened to what was read ; she took delight in 
 hearing others speak about God ; and she 
 
64 PHCEBE BARTLETT. 
 
 loved the Sabbath-day, because then she 
 went to hear her minister preach. She had 
 also a great dread of sin ; she wished to see 
 others saved ; she was kind to the poor ; she 
 loved to pray by herself; and though some- 
 times she was afraid of not being saved, she 
 had at other times much hope and much 
 peace. 
 
 One day she went with her sisters to a 
 plumb-tree in an orchard, and took some 
 plumbs, not knowing that she ought not: 
 when she brought them into the house, her 
 mother told her that to take the plumbs of 
 another person, without leave, was sin, and 
 that God had said she must not steal, she 
 cried out with tears, "I won't have these 
 plumbs." Then she said to her sister Eunice, 
 " Why did you ask me to go to that plumb- 
 tree ? I should not have gone if you had not 
 asked me." The other children did not seem 
 to care much about the sin, but she went on 
 crying about it, and said she would not go 
 again if Eunice asked her a hundred times. 
 After which, for some time, she could not 
 bear that fruit, though she had liked it before. 
 
 Sometimes she talked to her sisters about 
 
PHCEBE BARTLETT. 65 
 
 God ; and one day she said to her mother, 
 that she liad been telhng Nabby and Eunice 
 they must pray and prepare to die ; that they 
 had but a little while to live, and that they 
 must be always ready. Soon after, her mo- 
 ther asked Abigail whether she had said 
 that to them ; and Abigail told her that she 
 said that, and a great deal more. Another 
 day she begged her mother very much to go 
 and pray with Naomi. 
 
 Once when she heard that a poor man had 
 lost a cow, she ran to her father and begged 
 him to give the man a cow ; and when her 
 father said that they could not spare one, she 
 begged that the poor man might come and 
 Uve at their house. From that time this little 
 girl showed by her words and acts that she 
 was a child of God, and lived to love and 
 serve him above fifty years before she died. 
 
66 JOHN MOONEY MEAD. 
 
 JOHN MOONEY MEAD.* 
 
 John Mooney Mead, like other little boys, 
 soon showed that his heart was wicked, and 
 that he needed the grace of God, for when he 
 was a httle more than a year old he would 
 not obey his father. His father was very 
 sorry to hurt him, because he loved him very 
 much ; but he would not let him do wrong ; 
 and therefore he whipped him. Still John 
 would not obey. This made his father whip 
 him again. At last he did obey. Then he 
 put his little arms round his father's neck, and 
 gave him a kiss ; and ever after loved him 
 better than he did before. Sometimes, if he 
 did not obey his parents, they would not pray 
 with him at night. This made him very 
 
 * He was the son of the Rev. Mr. Mead, of East Hart- 
 ford, Nortli America; was bom May 4, 1826, and died 
 April 8. 1831. 
 
JOHN MOONEY MEAD. 67 
 
 sorry : he would beg them to pray for him ; 
 and if they did not forgive him, he would 
 weep and sob in his little bed, and beg God 
 to pardon him, and to make him a good boy. 
 When he was three and a half years old, 
 he began to read the Bible ; and would not 
 pass over a word which he did not know with- 
 out asking what it meant. When he heard 
 any older persons talking, he loved to hear 
 what they said, and asked them many ques- 
 tions. When he went any where he asked 
 his father to tell him about all that he saw. 
 And he made his father take him to see in 
 what way many things are made. One day 
 he went to see how chairs and tables were 
 made ; then he went to see the wheelwright 
 make wheels ; then he saw one man make 
 shoes, and another make a hat, and another 
 grind the flour which makes our bread, and 
 another make the paper on which we write. 
 Many little children do not ask their parents 
 any thing about shoes, and hats, and flour, and 
 paper, but John liked to see and learn all that 
 he could, and this made him know a great 
 deal more than many other little boys. Once 
 his father left him alone in a shop. Some 
 
68 JOHN MOONEY MEAD. 
 
 children would have cried to have been left 
 alone ; but he did much better : as he saw a 
 door shut by itself, he asked the person who 
 was in the shop how it could do so ; and when 
 his father came back he found him looking at 
 a weight which hung over a wheel, and thus 
 pulled the door till it was shut. 
 
 Though he was so young, and died before 
 he was live years old, yet he learned a great 
 deal of the Bible. At first he began with two 
 verses every day ; but when he could read 
 better, he learned seven verses every day : so 
 that before he was taken ill he had learned 
 the first thirteen chapters of St. John, and 
 twenty-eight verses of the fourteenth chapter. 
 
 Yet few boys are so lively, active, and 
 happy as he was. He loved to play ; and 
 when his father would play with him, his 
 merry laugh would be heard over the whole 
 house. If ever he was angry, he was soon in 
 a good temper. If he could not have what 
 he wished, he did not fret about it ; and if any 
 one was unkind to him he never showed any 
 malice. He loved his parents and his sisters 
 fondly, and when they came back after going 
 from home, he ran eagerly to kiss them. He 
 
JOHN MOONEY MEAD. 69 
 
 tried to please his parents in all things. If 
 they were angry, he could not be happy till 
 he saw them smile ; and if they were ill, he 
 loved to sit beside them, and to do for them 
 all that he could. To his sisters he was no less 
 kind. For a whole winter he brought his lit- 
 tle sister in his arms every morning from her 
 bed to the fire in the next room, that she might 
 not make her feet cold by the cold floor, 
 though his own little feet were as naked as 
 her's. It was a pretty sight to see that little 
 boy taking such care of his little sister. If 
 cakes, or raisins, or nuts were given him when 
 he was away from home, he brought them 
 back to share them with his sister ; and some- 
 times he gave away nearly all. I have said 
 that he was once whipped because he would 
 not obey his parents, but he soon learned to 
 obey them. At three years old he often went 
 with a message for them, and came back at 
 once. Once, when he was four years old, his 
 mother sent him to ask some friends to tea, 
 and to come back as soon as he could. He 
 went from one house to another, as she had 
 told him, and would not stay when they asked 
 him. At the last house he saw, through an 
 
70 JOHN MOONEY MEAD. 
 
 open door, a pretty bird in a cage. They 
 asked him to come in and see it, but he said, 
 *' My mother told me not to stop," and ran 
 home as fast as he could. When he got home, 
 and had given the answers with which he was 
 trusted, he told his mother of the pretty bird, 
 and said, " May I go back and see it ?" That 
 was much better than if he had staid to see 
 the bird, when he had been told not to do so. 
 It makes children happier in the end to do 
 what they ought to do, than to do what they 
 Hke to do. 
 
 This good little boy was also very kind. 
 Often children spend their money in toys or 
 cakes if they can ; but he gave almost all that 
 he had to the poor. For two years he went 
 without sugar and other SAveet things which 
 he liked, that he might get a httle money to 
 give away. If ever he heard of poor children 
 who had lost their parents, and had no one to 
 take care of them, or who had nothing to eat, 
 he would weep and sob, and would not eat. 
 Often, when the day was so bad that he did 
 not wish to go out to play, he would go through 
 the snow and rain to carry a poor widow 
 milk ; and his parents let him do it, because 
 
JOHN MOONEY MEAD. 71 
 
 they wished him to know that he was sent 
 into the world to do good. A short time be- 
 fore he died, he heard a woman say how 
 poor she was, and, having first asked his mo- 
 ther, he took out of his box more than half 
 of all the money that he had and gave it to 
 her. Yet he never told his father of it. He 
 liked to do good, but he did not wish to be 
 praised for it. 
 
 That which made little John be so kind and 
 so good was, that he feared and loved God 
 When he was three years old he ahvays pray- 
 ed when he went to bed at night, without be- 
 ing told to do so ; and he sometimes went by 
 himself at other times to pray. Once he was 
 staying with two old people, who did not have 
 family prayer. He did not like this : and one 
 day after breakfast he took his Bible, laid it 
 on a chair before them, and read a few verses. 
 After which he knelt down and prayed out 
 loud. Just as he had done, his mother came 
 into the room, and found the two old people 
 in tears ; and the lady said she had never felt 
 any prayer so much as that. The next day 
 he did the same thing while his mother was 
 
72 JOHN xMOONEY MEAD. 
 
 there ; and she said that many grown up per- 
 sons could not offer a better prayer. If ever 
 he was told that he had done wrong he would 
 go into the corner and there pray God to 
 make him a better boy ; and in the last year 
 of his life he often went by himself to pray. 
 Sometimes, also, he prayed with his sister, 
 and sometimes with his parents. All lit- 
 tle children have not parents who care for 
 their souls. One day John heard of a sick 
 child, who, when she was very ill, begged 
 her mother in vain to pray with her. Her 
 mother did not know how, so no one prayed 
 with the poor little girl, till she died. When 
 John heard it he shed many tears, and said, 
 " O, mother, I wish that I had been there, I 
 would have prayed for her." At this time he 
 thought much about being saved. Every 
 morning, for some time, when he came from 
 his bed, he said to himself, " The hour is com- 
 ing, in the which all that are in their graves 
 shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, 
 they that have done good to the resurrection 
 of life, and they that have done evil to the re- 
 surrection of damnation." But no one who 
 
JOHN MOOXEY MEAD. 73 
 
 did not know him can know how much he 
 thought of these truths. He talked about 
 them, and he hstened when others talked 
 about them. At his play, and in his bed, and 
 always he seemed to have his mind filled 
 with them. A few weeks before John was 
 ill, a fine boy, who was loved by all who 
 knew him, died. John wxnt to see him buried, 
 and heard his father say »to the parents, that 
 parents are in danger of loving their children 
 more than God, and making idols of them, 
 for which God may take them away. John 
 looked very much at the dead body ; and 
 when he came home said to his father, " Do 
 you make an idol of me ?" and the same eve- 
 ning he said to his mothei', " I shall go to hea-^ 
 ven, because I know that I love the Lord Je- 
 sus Christ." 
 
 One day he saw a boy, above ten years 
 old, at a shop door, selling rum, which makes 
 people drunk. Though it was out of the way, 
 he went up to him, and said, " It is wicked of 
 you to sell rum, my father says it is ; and you 
 had better be at school." This he never told 
 to his parents, who only heard it from the 
 other boy. 
 7 
 
74 JOHN MOONEY MEAD. 
 
 In this way he tried to do good to others. 
 Once he said to his nurse, " Have you given 
 yourself up to Jesus Christ ? " She said, " No." 
 " Well, why don't you ? " "I can't." " You 
 must pray." " Can't you pray for me ?" " The 
 Bible says we must all pray for ourselves." 
 But he often did pray for her ; and once he 
 was heard to say, " O Lord, bless R., and 
 give her a new heart ; and, O Lord, make 
 her holy, and prepare her for heaven." He 
 was as earnest with his little friends as he 
 was with his nurse. There were two little 
 children whom he went to see not long before 
 he died. He did not ask to see their play- 
 things, nor tell them what playthings he had. 
 He did not think about having any thing 
 given him to eat; nor did he beg them to 
 show him any pictures or to play a game 
 with him : but he tried to bring those little 
 children to turn to God. He told them that 
 if they did not love the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 they would not go to heaven, but would go 
 to hell ; and that God would say to them, 
 " Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
 pared for the devil and his angels.' But if 
 
JCHN MOONEY MEAD. 75 
 
 they did love the Lord Jesus Christ, they 
 would go to heaven, and he would say to 
 them, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, in- 
 herit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 foundation of the world." One of them then 
 said, " What shall I do ? " " You must pray," 
 said John. " I do." " But you do not pray 
 enough ; a thousand times would not be 
 enough for me." All this, which John said, 
 is true. All good children will go to heaven, 
 all bad children will be sent to hell. You 
 must be made good, my dear child, by the 
 grace of God ; you must love Christ, or you 
 will be lost. Hear that little boy, not five 
 years old, who is now in heaven, and who 
 bids you follow him there. Will you, after 
 you have read this, go and pray to God to 
 make you love Jesus Christ and to serve him 
 all your days, that you may go to that hap- 
 py place, where little John now is with the 
 Saviour ? 
 
 At last John grew veiy ill; nothing did 
 him good. For some time he lay very still 
 in his bed. Then he said, " Mother, I shall 
 want my father called, to see his son die. 
 
76 JOHN MOONEY MEAD. 
 
 When I come to die, you will call my dear 
 father out of the study, won't you?" He 
 loved his father very much. When his fa- 
 ther had been from home, and he saw Mm 
 coming back, he ran to meet him ; when his 
 father sat down, he would climb up on his 
 knee and say, " Dear father, my dear father." 
 To his last hour he wished to have him with 
 him ; and he was with him at the last. One 
 day he was resting his head on his father's 
 bosom, who wiped the cold sweat from his 
 face ; he looked at his father and his mo- 
 ther ; he gasped twice ; breathed a few tim^es 
 more ; and then his spirit went to join all 
 those little children who loved Jesus Christ 
 when they were on earth, and whom Je- 
 sus loves in heaven. Dear children, this 
 little boy was only four years and eleven 
 months old when he died. You are per- 
 haps older. Do you know as much of God 
 as he did ? Do you love Christ as he did ? 
 Do you love your parents as he did '? Do 
 you love your brothers and sisters like him ? 
 Do you learn every day some of the words 
 of God in the Bible ? And do you pray 
 
JOHN MOONEY MEAD. 77 
 
 in secret that God would make you fit for 
 heaven ? If not, then begin to do these 
 things now. Never rest till you are pious 
 children ; and till you are sure that you 
 will be with Christ in heaven when you die. 
 
78 MARGARET WALTON. 
 
 MARGARET WALTON.* 
 
 Margaret Walton learned, when she was 
 a very Httle girl, that her heart was wicked, 
 and that she must be born again. She knew 
 also that there is a day of judgment, in which 
 all who die will rise again, when those who 
 love God and Christ will go to heaven, and 
 those who love them not will go to hell. She 
 often talked about these truths, and seemed to 
 feel them very much. 
 
 Before she was three years old she learned 
 that hymn which says — 
 
 " But children you should never let 
 Your angry passions rise." 
 
 There was a little boy, named George, who 
 
 * Margaret, the eldest daughter of the Rev. W. Walton, 
 was bom in Charlestown, Virginia, on the 11th of March, 
 1818, and died Octobers, 1825. 
 
MARGARET WALTON. 79 
 
 did not think of this when he was at play ; 
 for, wlicn he was playing with Margaret, he 
 was so angry that he was going to strike her. 
 Margaret did not beat or scold him for it; 
 but only said, " You must not let such angry 
 passions rise, little Georgy." She made good 
 use of her hymn. 
 
 Before she was four years old she one day 
 saw a blacksmith come out of his shop, and 
 knock a man down with his tongs. It made 
 her feel sick to see the blood run down the 
 poor man's face ; and she asked her mother 
 whether God would forgive that wicked 
 blacksmith. Her mother said, that God 
 would forgive him, if he was sorry for his 
 sin. " Then," said Mary, " I will pray for 
 him." And, she did so ; for some time after, 
 the blacksmith came to the town where she 
 lived, and she then told him that she had 
 prayed to God to forgive him. 
 
 About the same time a little black girl was 
 at her father's house ; and, as Margaret wish- 
 ed to do the little girl good, she took her two 
 or three times into a room to pray with her. 
 There was also a very wicked man, to whom 
 she spoke in such a way of God, of the Sa- 
 
SD MARGARET WALTON. 
 
 viour, of heaven, and of hell, that he said of 
 her, "Miss Margaret is a wonderful child ! I 
 never heard a child talk so in my life." And 
 she talked in the same way to other persons 
 too. 
 
 At this time she often went into a room to 
 pray. Sometimes she began to cry when she 
 had not been hurt or vexed ; and, when she 
 was asked what made her cry, she said, " I 
 have such a wicked heart." At family prayer 
 she stood by her fatlier while he read the 
 Bible ; and, when he prayed, she knelt down, 
 with her hands put together before her ; and 
 sometimes she so felt the prayer, that she 
 could not help crying. Often her parents 
 talked with her about the great truths of the 
 Bible ; and she liked to hear of those truths, 
 more than other children like to talk of their 
 clothes, or their toys, their games, or their 
 food. 
 
 If her mother had been from home, and 
 asked when she came home, " Who have been 
 good children ?" one would say, " I have," and 
 another " I have ;" but she would be silent. 
 And when her mother said to her, " Have not 
 you too been a good girl ?" she would not 
 
MARGARET WALTON. 81 
 
 praise herself, but she would say, with a sweet 
 smile, "Ask Sarah." Once, when she was 
 asked, " Wiio is the best girl, you or your 
 sister?" she answered, "Why, sister." "And 
 who is the prettiest girl?" "Why, sister." 
 Others did not think so of her ; but she did, 
 because she was humble. 
 
 Margaret seemed to love every body, and 
 showed it in every v/ay. She often gave 
 things to her little brother ; and she used to 
 take her little sisters hand ; talk to her so 
 kindly, and show her every thing which she 
 would like to see. When her grandmother 
 was ill, Margaret often went to read the Bible 
 to her in her room ; and when one of the ser- 
 vants was ill, Margaret sat by her bed-side, 
 and read the Bible to her too. Thus she tried 
 to be kind to every one. But Margaret did* 
 not only read the Bible to please others, for 
 she loved it. Every morning she said a verse 
 out of it to her parents, and thus she knew a 
 great deal of it. When her father asked her 
 why she loved it, she said, " Because it is the 
 word of God." And once, when her father 
 was putting a Bible under her pillow to raise 
 her head, she said to him, " Don't treat the 
 
82 MARGARET WALTON. 
 
 word of God so." She knew that the great 
 God, who made heaven and earth, has told us 
 his will in the Bible. She knew that he who 
 has so loved us, that he gave his only son, 
 Jesus Christ, to die for us, has told his chil- 
 dren in the Bible how much he loves them. 
 She knew also that he had shown her in that 
 book how to be good and happy ; and this 
 made her love it and take care of it. It was 
 the Bible which, through the grace of God, 
 made her as pious as she was ; it gave her 
 peace till she died ; and it made her fit for 
 heaven, where she now is. If children wish 
 to be wise, good, useful, and happy, they must 
 read the Bible ; they must love it ; and they 
 must obey it. 
 
 Though she was so pious she wished to be 
 more so ; and said to her mother, " Oh, that 
 J could say, from the bottom of my heart, 
 
 * Here, Lord, I give myself away.' " 
 
 This thought made her cry for some time 
 when she was in bed, and beg her mother to 
 pray with her ; but her mother told her it 
 would be better if she prayed for herself. She 
 then prayed for a long time out loud ; and the 
 
MARGARET WALTON. 88 
 
 nurse, who was in the room, said, that she 
 had never before heard such a prayer from a 
 child. 
 
 But Kttle Margaret did not pray only when 
 she went to bed. God is with us every 
 where ; he gives us all that we have ; he takes 
 care of us every minute; and therefore we 
 may always pray to him ; and so she did. 
 When she walked out she saw much to please 
 her; there were the flowers and trees, the 
 birds and insects, the horses and sheep, to 
 look at. She could jump and run about as 
 other little girls. She might play with other 
 children, and ask her aunt or her mother to 
 tell her about many things which she saw ; 
 but though she could think and speak about 
 all these things, she loved more to think and 
 speak about God. One day she was walking 
 with her aunt, and they talked of God, and of 
 Christ, and of heaven, till she seemed full of 
 joy ; and, as they were in a quiet place, 
 where nobody was near, she said, " Aunt, you 
 can pray, and I can pray, and we can sing. 
 I want to bow my knees to my heavenly Fa- 
 ther. I want to obey his command." Her 
 aunt thought that they could not kneel down 
 
84 MARGARET VV'ALTON. 
 
 there, where they might be seen ; but they 
 sang two hymns which she knew. Her aunt 
 then said to her, " Do you love God ?" " Yes," 
 she said, " I know I do." " Do you love him 
 better than every thing else ?" " Yes," she 
 said again " I know I do." Ever after that 
 she liked that place, and liked to think of that 
 walk with her aunt. It makes little children 
 happy to love God, and to know that God 
 loves them ; and this made her ready to die. 
 God saw it to be good for her that she should 
 not live long on earth ; but he made her fit 
 for heaven before he took her away. Though 
 she was young, and had always seemed to 
 others so good a little girl, she felt how bad 
 her heart was, and she said once, " O, I have 
 passed through a great deal of sin !" Many 
 children are not sorry for bad words and 
 wicked acts ; but Margaret was grieved to 
 think even of her bad thoughts ; yet, when 
 she thought of what Christ had done, it gave 
 her peace. . One night she said, " Jesus died 
 to save sinners : if I repent, did he not die for 
 me ?" " Yes," said a friend, " he did." " If I 
 feel sorry in my heart for my sins, is not that 
 repentance?" "Yes." "Then," she said, 
 
MARGARET WALTON. 85 
 
 " God will forgive me for Christ's sake." She 
 felt that she was sorry for her sins, and she 
 knew that God pardons those who are so. 
 But her faith, instead of making her cease to 
 pray, made her pray the more. Her words 
 were few, for she was a little girl ; but the 
 blessed Saviour heard them. This was her 
 earnest prayer : " Jesus, love me ! O Je- 
 sus, Jesus, you did promise me, that whoso- 
 ever believeth in thy name should not perish. 
 You did promise me so." Do you think he 
 turned away from her prayer ? I feel sure 
 he did not. He did love her; he loves her 
 now ; and will love her for ever. Though 
 she died very young, we should not pity her ; 
 for she is full of joy now among the angels 
 of God ; and she will be so for ever. Indeed 
 she was a happy little child all the time that 
 she was ill. She could talk about heaven with 
 a smile, while her mother and her nurse shed 
 tears for her; and almost her last words 
 showed her hope that she would soon see the 
 Saviour there. When her father said, " Whom 
 do you expect to see in heaven ?" she an- 
 swered, " Jesus." When he said, " Will you 
 praise him ?" she answered, " Yes." " And 
 8 
 
86 MARGARET WALTON. 
 
 for what ?" " For his loving kindness." Soon 
 after that she went to heaven to praise him, 
 as she said. Happy child ! she had no fear 
 of dying, and death could not hurt her. They 
 put her body into the grave, but she went to 
 her home above ; and there, if we love the 
 Saviour, we shall one day see her, and share 
 in her joy. 
 
MARY LOTHROP. 87 
 
 MARY LOTHROP.* 
 
 When Mary was two years old her mother 
 began to talk to her about God, and she hked 
 to listen to her mother. As soon as she 
 could talk she would say, " That she loved 
 God and wished to be good, that she might 
 go to heaven." Some little children, when 
 they come in to family prayer, look about, or 
 play with their fingers, and do not listen or 
 pray; but Mary, when she was only three 
 years old, sat very still, and thought of all 
 that was said. Some little children will do 
 what they are bid, because they fear to be 
 punished ; but she tried to please her parents 
 in all things, and did not wait for them to tell 
 her that she must not do any thing ; but if 
 
 * She died in Boston, U. S., March 18, 1831, aged six 
 years and tliree months. From her life, published at Bos- 
 ton, 1832. 
 
88 MARY LOTHROP. 
 
 she only thought that any thing would grieve 
 them, she would not do it. As she grew 
 older, she tried to please every body ; which 
 made them love her, and made her feel happy. 
 She would never play with bad children, but 
 left them to go to her mother, or staid away 
 from them by herself. 
 
 At four years old she was sent to school. 
 There she often came to her teacher. Miss 
 G., and said, "Will you please to read what 
 Jesus said to little children?" And once she 
 said, "Will Jesus love little children now; 
 and will he give me a new heart if I ask him ?" 
 
 Before she was five years old she earnestly 
 sought a new heart, and said, "I want to 
 know that I have a new heart." And when 
 she was five she was more earnest, and said, 
 almost every day, " Dear mother, I want God 
 to make me good. I want him to take away 
 my wicked heart, and give me a new heart. 
 O, mother, wdll you pray for me ?" She was 
 very fond of prayer. If she saw any one in 
 want — if she was vexed by any thing, or if 
 either of her brothers did wrong, she would 
 go and pray. In the morning she would not 
 leave her room without prayer. She did not 
 
MARY LOTHROP. 89 
 
 say a prayer taught her out of a book, but she 
 prayed for a great many things in her own 
 words. 
 
 One night, when she was about five years 
 old, there was a fire in the city, and they cried 
 out, fire ! fire ! Some children would have 
 screamed when they heard it, and would 
 have thought that they would be burnt in 
 their beds ; but Mary lay still ; and next day 
 she said, " Mother, when they cried fire last 
 night, I thought that there were so many sin- 
 ners that did not love God, I was afraid that 
 their houses would get on fire, and burn them 
 up, before they learned the way to heaven. It 
 troubled me so, that I could not help crying ; 
 and then I tried to pray for them." 
 
 Little children should be like little lambs, 
 and play together, and love each other ; but 
 sometimes they quarrel, and are like tigers. 
 They do this because they have wicked 
 hearts ; but when God makes their hearts 
 good, then they do not Hke to quarrel. Mary 
 loved God, and therefore did not like to quar- 
 rel with her httle brother ; and how do you 
 think she tried to make him not quarrel with 
 her ? One day he struck her, and was pun- 
 8* 
 
06 MARY LOTHROP. 
 
 ished. She then took his hand, and led him 
 out of the room. When -she came back, she 
 said, " Mother, I do not think that he will strike 
 me any more." But he did strike her again in 
 a few days. She then said, " Dear mother, 
 don't punish him ; I think I can teach him not 
 to do so again :" and she took him out of the 
 room. Her mother then went after them, to 
 see what she would do. She went with him 
 into a room, and nearly shut the door. Then 
 she made him kneel down by a chair, and she 
 knelt by his side. After which, she said, " O, 
 Lord, forgive my little brother, and give him 
 a new heart, that he may not strike me any 
 more ; and if he does strike me or push me, 
 put it into my heart not to strike him, but to 
 say, ' Don't do so, httle brother.' " That was 
 a good way to make him kind to her. If 
 little children would pray with each other, 
 they would not often quarrel. 
 
 If her father was ever tired, or in trouble, 
 she did not vex him more by being naughty, 
 but she would go and pray for him. Once 
 she was heard to say, "O Lord, wilt thou 
 bless my dear father, and comfort him by 
 making him think of his heavenly home ?'* 
 
MARY LOTHROP. 91 
 
 Some little children leave their play-things 
 about, and throw down their clothes every 
 where, by which they give servants a great 
 deal of trouble ; but little Mary was very 
 neat and orderly, because her mother told 
 her to be so. Her clothes were folded up 
 with care ; and after she had used a book or 
 a toy, she always put it in its place. 
 
 One Sunday, when she was about five years 
 old, she said, " O mother, I do not want to live 
 in this wicked world any longer ; I want to go 
 to heaven, to be where God is. When I look 
 up to heaven, and think that God is there, and 
 the holy angels are there, and the blessed Sa- 
 viour is there, I can't live in this world and be 
 a sinner any longer. I want to be where 
 God is. 1 long to be there. Then we can 
 praise him all the time ; and the blessed Sa- 
 viour will rejoice to hear us too. It makes 
 me feel very happy." 
 
 Once, when a poor black man came to the 
 house, she said to him, "Caesar, do you love 
 God? Do you pray to him? You must 
 pray a great deal. Do you read the Bible? 
 You know we have all got to be sick and die. 
 You have got to be sick, and suffer a great 
 
92 MARY LOTHROP. 
 
 deal. Will you tell me, Caesar, that you'll 
 love God, and try to serve him ?" 
 
 « I will, little Mary, I v^^ill try." The poor 
 old man wept as he went away, and said, 
 " Good-bye, little Mary ; you won't be with 
 us here very long ; you'll be better off." After 
 he went out she prayed for him : a few days 
 after that he died. 
 
 Another time, when there was an orofan 
 playing in the street, she said, " How it makes 
 me feel to see that poor man with the organ, 
 and those little boys ; they look so poor and 
 so dirty. I am afraid they have not any one 
 to take care of them, and tell them about 
 God." She then kneeled down, and prayed 
 "^r the man and the poor little bovs, and her 
 heart seemed full of pity for them. 
 
 Mary had thought it would make her so 
 happy to be well again, and to play with other 
 children ; but she often saw so much which 
 was wrong in their play, that it made her 
 sad. Little children should think that God 
 sees them, even when they play, and not 
 either do or say any thing in their play which 
 is against his will. Sometimes they quarrel 
 with each other ; sometimes they are rude ; 
 
MARY LOTHROP. 93 
 
 sometimes they say bad words ; sometimes 
 they are idle, and will neither play nor do 
 any thing else. These things little Mary 
 could not bear : but would rather be by her- 
 self: and all good little children must feel as 
 she did. 
 
 If ever she spoke of God she was very se- 
 rious ; and when she spoke of the Saviour 
 she would say the blessed Saviour. It there- 
 fore grieved her when her sisters used the 
 name of God lightly. Once, with tears in her 
 eyes, she said to her sister, " You pray too 
 fast ; I cannot hear the name of God repeated 
 so. I do not think God will hear such a 
 prayer." If children only say their prayers, 
 without feeling them, how can they think God 
 will give them what they ask for? He will 
 give us what we ask with our hearts in the 
 name of Christ ; but if we do not mean what 
 we say, God sees that we do not pray at all, 
 and will not bless us. Mary was therefore 
 quite right. 
 
 One day, when she was five years and a 
 half old, she went a short journey with her 
 mother. As they came home the wind blew, 
 the rain poured down, the way was long to 
 
94 MARY LOTHROP. 
 
 her, and she was very tired ; but before she 
 went to bed she prayed out loud with her 
 mother, and, instead of being vexed that the 
 day had been so bad, she thanked God for 
 making the high hills and the pretty flowers ; 
 and that the wind did not blow any harder, 
 and that it did not rain any more. 
 
 You know, my dear children, that there 
 are a great many people in the world called 
 heathen, who do not know God ; they pray to 
 gods of wood and stone to bless them ; they 
 have never heard of Jesus Christ ; they have 
 no Bible ; they are under the power of Satan ; 
 and they live in all kinds of sin. Little Mary 
 had heard of the heathen, and felt so sorry 
 for them, that she was often heard to pray for 
 them ; and if any money was given to her 
 she loved to give it, that missionaries might 
 be sent out to them. God had saved her 
 through Christ, and she wished all other little 
 children in the world to know about God and 
 Christ, that they might be saved too. 
 
 Sometimes she was afraid that she was not 
 a child of God, and she wept when she spoke 
 of her sins ; but when she learned that, how- 
 ever sinful she might be, Jesus Christ could 
 
MAR^ LOTHROP. 95 
 
 save her, she was Isd by the grace of God to 
 put herself under his care, and after that she 
 had no more fear. 
 
 It pleased God that little Mary should suf- 
 fer a great deal of pain. Day and night she 
 was in pain ; and she would lie for hours with- 
 out moving, because any change hurt her so 
 much. Month after month she could scarce- 
 ly breathe. She could not lift up her arm ; 
 she could only turn her head upon her pillow ; 
 yet she was very patient. She knew that 
 Christ had suffered more for her ; she knew 
 that she deserv id to suffer more ; and she 
 knew that she would soon be in heaven. Sick- 
 ness sometimes makes children cross and self- 
 ish ; but UttleMary was very grateful. "Dear 
 mother, sweet mother," she sometimes said, 
 " I don't wish you to sit up with me to-night. 
 You can lie down so that I can see you. I 
 Jove to look at you." 
 
 For nearly four months she lay so ill that 
 she could not move her finger, and had no 
 hope to grow better ; yet, when a lady said 
 to her, " I suppose, my dear Mary, you often 
 wonder that you are sick so long, and suffer 
 so much pain," she meekly answered " No ;'' 
 
96 MARY LOTHROP. 
 
 and then said, that she was happier than ever 
 before in her life. O how happy it is to be 
 a child of God ! 
 
 When her mother gave her some coffee, 
 she said , " It is God who gives coffee its plea- 
 sant taste. How good God is to give us so 
 many things to make us happy ! Oranges, 
 lemons, figs ; we could not make them grow. 
 God makes the wood grow too. O how good 
 God is ! I remember, when I rode out last 
 summer, how beautifully the hills and the 
 trees looked. How many there were ! and 
 the sweet little flowers that he made to grow 
 out of the ground." One night, when some 
 persons had said how much they pitied her, 
 she said, "I don't like to hear people call me 
 a lamb ; I would rather they* would talk 
 about my being a sinner, and tell me of the 
 sufferings of the Saviour ; that makes me for- 
 get how much I suflfer." 
 
 At length the hour came for her to die. 
 She was veiy weak and in great pain. " O," 
 she said, " that I could have one breath ! 0, 
 that I could cough ! I will try to be patient. 
 Give me more air ! It will soon be over. 
 Mrs. H., <?ome, kneel down by me, and pray 
 
MARY LOTIIROP. 97 
 
 to God. Pray earnest. Speak loud ! earn- 
 est, earnest ! God, do relieve me !" Dur- 
 ing the prayer she was easier. She then 
 slept for some hours ; after which she again 
 asked Mrs. H. to pray. Not long after the 
 prayer was ended she said earnestly, " Mo- 
 ther ! come to me — sit close to me ! Call fa- 
 ther — call him quick." She could not speak 
 any more ; but as they watched her, they 
 could hear her faintly whisper, " Dear ma — 
 sweet ma — sweet ma," till the sound died 
 away ; and she went to the Saviour whom 
 she had so much loved, and by whom she had 
 been so greatly blessed. 
 
 Little Mary was only six years and three 
 months old when she died. Dear children, 
 strive and pray to be like her. Ask God, 
 very often to make you so, and never rest till 
 you are. 
 
 9 
 
98 SOME THINGS Will JH 
 
 SOME THINGS WHICH LITTLE CHILDREN 
 OUGHT TO DO. 
 
 As you have now read, my dear children, 
 he lives of these little boys and girls, you 
 fenow how soon children may know and love 
 God. Some who have read this little book 
 are, perhaps, older than Phoebe Bartlctt, Mary 
 Lothrop, David Brown, or John Mead : you 
 should therefore try at once to love and serve 
 God as they did. If you wish to do so, then 
 read over the rules which I am going to write, 
 and try every day to keep them. 
 
 1. As you are sinners you can only be 
 saved for the sake of Jesus Christ, who died 
 upon the cross to save you, you must there- 
 fore own your sins, and be sorry for them. 
 You must trust only in Christ to save you ; 
 you must ask God, often, to save you for the 
 sake of Christ ; and love the Saviour ver> 
 
LITTLE CHILDREN OUGHT TO DO. 99 
 
 much for being so good as to love you and 
 to save you. 
 
 2. God has been so good as to send his 
 only son Jesus Christ to save you, and is al- 
 ways doing you good. Think of him always ; 
 for he sees you in every place. When you 
 are happy praise him for it ; since he gives 
 you all that you enjoy. Praise him when you 
 get up ; praise him when you go to bed ; and 
 praise him often in the day. And try to love 
 him, as your Heavenly Father, better than 
 you love any body in the world. 
 
 3. Since the Bible is the word of God, if 
 you can read well, read it every day, that you 
 may know more and more of what God says 
 to you there, and learn some verses of it every 
 day ; and ask your parents to read to you of 
 Samuel and Joseph, of David and Timothy, 
 who all served the Lord w^hen they were 
 young. Ask them above all to read to you 
 of Jesus Christ, who, though he was one with 
 God and was God became a little cliild, and 
 then died on the cross to save you from hell. 
 And if ever your parents talk to you about 
 God and Christ, about heaven and hell, learn 
 from them all that you can, and think much 
 
100 SOME THINGS WHICH 
 
 of all that they say to you, that you may soon 
 know as much as Mary Lothrop or John 
 Mead knew. 
 
 4. As God only can make you wise and 
 good, pray to him very often to bless you 
 Never get up or go to bed without praying 
 to him. Pray to him sometimes w^hen you. 
 are at play or work. Pray to him, before 
 your meals, to bless you. When you are at 
 family prayer sit still to hear the Bible read. 
 Kneel quietly during prayer, and try to pray 
 yourself Ask also your parents to pray with 
 you, and to pray for you ; and may God hear 
 your prayer, and make you very pious. 
 
 5. All these pious children were fond of 
 hymns, and little David knew about forty 
 hymns, although he was not five years old. 
 If you were to learn one verse of a hymn 
 every day in the week till Friday, and then 
 say them over again on Saturday and Sunday, 
 you would soon know as many pretty hymns 
 as httle David did. 
 
 6. When you read, and w^hen your parents 
 talk to you, you hear words and things which 
 you do not understand. Your parents would 
 be very glad to tell you what these words 
 
LITTLE CHILDREN OUGHT TO DO. 101 
 
 and things mean, if you would ask them. Ask 
 them, as little John used, of every thing which 
 you sec and hear which may do you good, 
 and try to keep in mind what they say. 
 
 7. Good children always love and obey 
 their parents. Do you love and obey your 
 parents ? You must do what they tell you 
 at once, with good temper, and as well as 
 you can. God has put them over you, and it 
 is his will that you should obey them, as it is 
 his will that you should obey him. Never 
 do what you know they do not like, even if 
 they are out of sight ; for God can see you 
 if they do not ; and they also will almost al- 
 ways find you out. Besides, how much they 
 love you, and how many things they give 
 you ! You could not get food and clothes 
 without them ; and if they did not take care 
 of you, you would soon be sick and die. You 
 ought therefore to love them as little David 
 did, who said to his father, " Let me smuddei 
 (smother) you with kisses. You so very deai 
 to me ; me can't tell how dear you are !" oi 
 as little Mary, whose last words were, " Deai 
 ma, sweet ma — sweet ma !" 
 
 You must also be kind, and good, and obe 
 9* 
 
102 SOME THINGS WHICH 
 
 dient to those who nurse you. They do a 
 great many things for you, and bear with all 
 your faults. You should therefore love them, 
 and do all that they tell you, and never be 
 cross to them. 
 
 8. It is the w^ill of God that little children 
 should love each other. It is very sweet to 
 see one little child teach another, as Abner 
 used to teach little David. It is very sweet 
 to see a little brother keep his sister from be- 
 ing hurt, as little John carried his sister from 
 her bed to the fire, that she might not touch 
 the cold floor with her feet ; and it is very 
 sweet to hear a little sister pray for her sis- 
 ters, as Phoebe did when she was only four 
 years old. And will not you, my dear chil- 
 dren, be like these good little brothers and 
 sisters ? Never quarrel : leave that to dogs 
 and bears. Never hurt each other. Wasps 
 may sting, and snakes may bite ; but you 
 should be like doves and lambs. God the 
 Holy Spirit came down on Jesus in the form 
 of a dove, to teach us that he loves us to be 
 as gentle as doves ; and Jesus Christ among 
 his enemies was as meek and mild as a lamb, 
 to teach us that we also should be .ike lambs. 
 
LITTLE CHILDREN OUGHT TO DO. 103 
 
 Do for each other every act of kindness that 
 you can. Jf you have any nice things share 
 them with the others. If you are playing to- 
 gether, give up your wills to each other, and 
 let each try to make the others happy all the 
 day. 
 
 9. Some children play very rudely : they 
 push each other about ; they scold each other ; 
 they mock each other ; each wishes to have 
 his own way ; and then they are sure to quar- 
 rel before long. If you see children playing 
 in that way, go from them, and never play so 
 yourselves ; but be gentle to each other, and 
 take care never to hurt those who are not so 
 old or so strong as you are. 
 
 10. Those children who play rudely, also 
 love to do mischief. If they play with any 
 thing they leave it about. Nothing of theirs 
 is in its place. They tear their frocks ; they 
 break their toys ; they lose their books ; they 
 spoil whatever is given to them. But Jesus, 
 when he was upon earth, would not let the 
 bits of broken bread be wasted ; but made his 
 disciples gather them up. A pious child will 
 never therefore waste and spoil any thing. 
 Take care of every thing which you have. 
 
104 SOME THINGS WHICH 
 
 Put all things in their places ; and instead of 
 spending your money in trash, save it that 
 you may give to the poor. 
 
 11. Some of those children whose lives you 
 have read never were known to tell one lie in 
 their lives. I hope you will, from this time, 
 be like them in this. All liars, you know, 
 must be cast into a lake of fire when they die. 
 Liars cannot be children of God. Don't lie 
 once more, if you ever have lied. And if, 
 through the goodness of God, you have never 
 told one lie, then pray to God that you may 
 never tell one to the end of your lives. 
 
 Will you, dear children, watch, and strive, 
 and pray that you may thus follow those pious 
 children of whom you have read ? I want 
 you to be blessed. I want you to be the chil- 
 dren of God. Do not forget what I have said 
 to you ; but read it over again. If you can 
 give your hearts to God, and do his will ; if 
 you can be sorry for sin, and trust m Christ ; 
 you will be so dear to your parents ; your 
 brothers and sisters will love you very much ; 
 all good people will love you ; you will be 
 loved by the Lord Jesus Christ ; and he will 
 take you at last to be with your Heavenly 
 
LITTLE CHILDREN OUGHT TO DO. 105 
 
 Father for ever and ever. There I hope I 
 shall meet many of you, when God has made 
 us all, by his grace, holy and good. And 
 may God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Spirit, dwell within you all, and bless you, 
 and keep you to the end.